Molecular Phylogeny Of Serranidae Of China With Complete Cytochrome B Sequences

The Family Serranidae and it's allies belong to Perciformes:Percoidei,they usually inhabit in tropical or subtropical waters all over the world.Serranidae is one of the families which have richest species-diversity in Percoidei.Fishes in Sinipercine,groupers and Lateolabrax are of high economic value and are important subjects of aquaculture.Some fishes in Serraninae and Anthiinae are famous ornamental pets.Many fishes in Serranidae are listed in IUCN,waiting for protection.Serranidae are basal percoid fishes,they are key taxa in phylogenetic analyses of Perciformes,taxonomic and phylogenetic researches of this group are difficult and have long been subjects of entensive researches.Primarily Serranidae were composed of fishes whose phylogenetic positions could not umambigously assigned in percoid family based on morologieal, physiological and osteological characters.The range and phylogenetic placement of Serranidae in Perciodei had been changed many times.As there are so many genus and species in Serranidae, specific habitat could have leded to morphological specification,and similar ecological preference could have caused morphologicl convergence;and worldwide distribution of serranid fishes prevent the collection of enough representative samples;few extensive phylogenetic survey on serranidae had been conducted.The development of molecular phylogeny sheds new light in serranid phylogeny.However due to the lacking of suitable samples or poor genetic signals in shorter sequences,several molecular phylogeny of serranid fishes resulted in various relationships,and no extensive phylogenetic analysis have been conducted on Serranidae in China.In the present study,38 complete sequences of mtDNA cytochrome b gene(cytb) from samples of serrenidae and their allies were determined,combined with related homologous sequences downloaded from GenBank,84 complete cytb sequences were used to build phylogenetic trees by Neighbour-Joining method,Minimum Evolution method,Maximum Likelihood method, Maximum Parsimony method.Various traditional serranidae were found no support in phylogenetic trees.Phylogenetic results were as follows:1 Serraninae and Epinephelinae didn't appear in the same clade,and average distance between them were large.2 Niphon,Diplorion and Grammistes didn't clustered with Epinephelus,which didn't support the monophyly of subfamily Epinephelinae.Niphon were close to Percinae,Grammistes were weakly clustered with Percichthyidae,and Diplorion was in the clade of Epinephelini.3 Cromileptes,Promicrops,Anyperodon and Mycteroperca were nested in Epinephelus clade.4 Sinipercine fishes didn't cluster with Epinephini or Serraninae in Serranidae,which support the excluding Sinipercine from Serranidae,but phylogenetic placement of Sinipercine within perciod was not clear.5 Lateolabrax were phylogenetically isolated,which may support the promotion to the family Lateolabracidae.To better resolve phylogenetic relationships of the family,more molecular markers should be used and more samples of serranid fishes and their allies be analyzed.